b2evolution version 3.3.2-stable "Venice" has been released.

Download here »

Version 3.3.2 builds upon version 3.3.1 and merely provides bug fixes. 3 months worth of bugfixes! Most of them have been backported by Tilman from the work we started this summer on b2evolution version IV (not to be released before several months).

We recommend version 3.3.2 to all users at this point. Upgrading from version 3.3.1 is only a matter of replacing a few files.

Upgrades from previous versions will require to follow the standard upgrade procedure (takes about 5 minutes if you have no hacks). Skins are compatible since b2evolution 2.x.

Major changes in 3.3.2

• Many bug fixes (@tblue / @francoisplanque)
• Improved Auto Links plugin (@francoisplanque)
• Fixed bug allowing multiple plugins to have per-blog specific settings (@francoisplanque)
• Check whether user is allowed to edit post when updating it (saving to DB) (@tblue)

• XML-RPC:

  • Added missing permission checks (@tblue)
  • Improved metaWeblog.newMediaObject (@tblue)
  • Fixed API method signatures (return values) (@tblue)
  • Use correct charsets. (@tblue)
  • Check extra categories before checking permissions to post to them (sends correct XML-RPC error on failure). (@tblue)

b2evolution version 3.3.1-stable “Los Angeles” has been released!

Download here »

As they say, it’s the most advanced b2evolution… yet! But it’s even better than that, this version has gone though an extensive beta and release-candidate process in order to ensure that upgrades from versions 2.x will run flawlessly! (Can be done in less than a minute! – Just make sure your web host is up to date and your account runs at least MySQL 4.1, if not 5.x; if not ask them how to upgrade.)

Note that it’s also possible to upgrade from versions 1.x but you will need to use a new evoskin v2/3 and recustomize it to your site design. Either way, just follow the upgrade instructions in infex.html in the downloadable ZIP file.

Skins and Plugins from version 2.x will work on 3.x. Skins developed specifically for 3.x offer additional features (such as intro & featured posts).

Language packs from 2.x will work on 3.x if you add a locale definition file. Have a peek into the /locales folder or download a 3.x language pack here.

This stable 3.x release meets the standards and functionality I took out of my insanely long todo list end of 2008, while still living in Los Angeles (hence, the name of the relase). For upcoming versions, please send feature requests via twitter starting like this ” @b2evolution wish: ” – one request per user in 140 chars or less! That’s the rule of the game :)

Tons of new features!

Below you will find a recap of all the new features that have been added in versions 3.x:

Read more »

b2evolution version 3.3.0-rc1 has been released!

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This is basically the stable version everyone has been waiting for, except we called it "rc1" instead of "stable". RC means Release Candidate. We called it rc1 because we are still finding and fixing little bugs every day. These are not major issues and we run 3.3.0-rc1 ourselves on dozens of production servers already. However, we thought we should play it safe and give it an extra week or two to iron out little quirks before this new release gets wide distribution.

"When will 3.3.0-stable be officially announced?"

I hope you can guess the answer from the paragraph above: when we're done with the little bugs.

"Yes, but give us a date?"

Here's a date: 7/31 8/8. (No, it's not a guarantee.)

Changes in 3.3.0-rc1

Btw, note you can follow/contact all contributors on twitter: b2evolution, tblue246, leeturner2701, walter, fplanque, yabs, blueyed, sam2kb.

• Skins:

  • Skins can now have skin-specific translations ("locales" folder in the skin's folder, directory structure is the same as for plugin translations). (tblue246)
  • All skins now support setting RSS feeds to 'none' (leeturner2701)

• SEO:

  • <meta> desc and <meta> keywords per blog post (leeturner2701)
  • Category descriptions can be used as meta description on category pages (walter)

• Admin:

  • Remember whether or not the TinyMCE editor was last used on a per post and per blog basis. (fplanque)
  • Prevent clicking on "Publish NOW!' when a post is set to protected or private (tblue246)

• Installer:

  • B2evolution no longer ships with _basic_config.php . It ships with _basic_config.template.php instead. That way, uploading a new release never overwrites the previous base config. The installer now creates _basic_config.php based on _basic_config.template.php + entered form values. (fplanque)
  • Language/locale selection moved to a place where it's visible! (fplanque)
  • Only one locale is now activated by default (the one selected during install). (fplanque)
  • Simplified main screen (fplanque).

• Plugins:

  • Twitter plugin no longer requires curl (yabs)
  • New plugin hook: BeforeSessionsDelete (yabs, blueyed)

• Other:

  • i18n/charset handling improvements (sam2kb)
  • Bug fixes! (blueyed, tblue246, sam2kb, yabs, leeturner2701, fplanque)

We have two new releases today:

2.4.7-stable “Tilman”

This release contains several bug fixes tracked down and applied mostly by Tilman (Tblue) with the help of Walter (waltercruz). Also we missed Tilman’s birthday but I believe we’re still close ;)

If you’re already running 2.4.6, there is a quick upgrade available. (For previous b2evolution versions, use the regular upgrade procedure.)

Download here »

Quick list of fixes:

• Bugfix: Old chapter URL titles containing underscores work again (fplanque)
• CSS bugfixes (yabs)
• Bugfix: Set post type to “Post” when creating a post using the “Simple” form (tblue)
• Bugfix: Don’t display the user’s full name if it isn’t set when deleting users (tblue)
• Fixed “Duplicate entry” SQL error after renaming plugin events (sam2kb)
• Display submit button on category widget when requested (tblue)
• Validate w and m URL params (tblue)
• tempskin param: Do not allow the use of not installed skins (tblue)
• Fix bug in Photoblog skin (media index) (tblue)
• Completed German translation (tblue)
• Localization system fixes (tblue)
• Bugfix: The plugin info screen now shows correct info for installed plugins (tblue)
• Additional bug fixes (walter)

3.2.0-beta “Woodland Hills”

In this release, we added many new features over 3.1.0 so we called it a “beta” again… but it’s getting pretty close to our goals for version 3… (planning for this dates back to when I was living in Woodland Hills ;)

We are running several blogs on 3.2 in production already – including b2evolution.net.

Download here »

Read more »

b2evolution 3.1.0-beta has just been released. (I just called it “Tilqi” because it’s his birthday today ;) – if you don’t know him, tilqicom is very active & helpful in the forums)

Download here »

This is a pretty exciting release as it includes many visual features among which:

• A much anticipated integrated WYSIWYG editor (TinyMCE);
• An enhanced menu bar;
• A cleaned up drag’n'drop interface for moving widgets around;
• A much nicer datepicker.

Special thanks to Tilman, Daniel, Walter & Alex for all the debugging they did on top of the previous alpha release. Thank you to everyone who has tested and reported bugs in the forums.

Note: b2evolution 2.x skins should work in 3.x without modification. However in order to use all new 3.x features you may need to add some code.

Here is a quick rundown of new features in 3.1.0 (be sure to also check out the features of 3.0.0 if you haven’t done so yet)

b2evolution 3.1.0-beta “Tilqi”

• UI:
  
  • Integrated WYSIWYG editor (TinyMCE) (blueyed, fplanque)
  • New evobar menu: extended, extensible by plugins and a little animation too (fplanque)
  • Integrated jQuery UI datepicker (Afwas)
• Blog features:
  
  • Intro posts: added typecolumn in browse screen and made more silent regarding noindex, sitemaps & notifications.
  • The default category for new posts can now be chosen explicitely for each blog.
  • Categories can now be reordered manually (instead of alphabetical display). This is a system wide general setting.
  • Automatic generation of excepts (fplanque)
  • Basic version history of post edits (click on the little clock icon in the post lists) (fplanque)
• Widgets:
  
  
  • Cleaned up AJAX drag & drop interface (fplanque)
  • Universal Item List widget now combines the functionality of Post List, Page List, Link List, Link Blog… + combinations. Pretty powerful :) (fplanque)
  • Related posts widget (fplanque)
  • Extended widget possibilities (fplanque,yabba,tblue)
  • Widgets can be enabled/disabled. (Tblue)
  • Sidebar Links item type + widget now allow to display a linkroll without using a separate blog. (walter,fplanque
• Other:
  
  
  • Optimized speed/reduced # of queries (blueyed)
  • Cleaner URLs when browsing through multiple pages. (fplanque)
  • Fixed locale selection during install.
  • Do not display locale selector on edit screen if only one locale is available.
• Bugfixes. Many! (Tblue,blueyed,walter)

Just in case you wonder what's going on behind the scene, we packaged a quick 3.0.0-alpha sneak peek release ;)

Download here »

We do not recommend to run this on production (although some of us do). This is ALPHA software, which means nothing you see is final and a lot of features are untested (not to mention, there a known bugs...)

If you are interested, it's a nice package to install locally in order to get an idea of some of the new features we've been implementing.

This is nowhere near final (there are already new features added to CVS since this release) but here's an quick rundown of what's changed so far:

3.0.0-alpha

• General features
  
  • User avatar support
  • User fields support: MSN/Live IM, Yahoo IM, AOL AIM, ICQ ID, Skype, Main phone, Cell phone, Office phone' Home phone, Office FAX, Home FAX, Website, Blog, Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Flickr, YouTube, Digg, StumbleUpon, Role, Organization, Division, VAT ID, Main address, Home address... (what else? ;)
  • Featured posts let you have the latest featured post on top of others with special formatting. (requires a skin that implements get_featured_Item() )
  • Intro posts let you content specific have intros on top of your category and tag pages. Same for the home page. (requires a skin that implements get_featured_Item() )
• Photoblogging
  
  • It is now possible to select multiple images in the file manager and either
    
    • create multiple posts (1 per image)
    • or create 1 post with all images attached
  • Photo posts will be in draft status by default, allowing you to add titles and comments before publishing.
  • Photo index widget to show your latest photos in a blog sidebar.
  • Support of "cropped" thumbnails (the image will always fill the whole thumbnail area)
  • Thumbnail sizes can be configured in /conf/_advanced.php
• Enhanced stats
  & analytics
  
  • Complete hit log view
  • Faster queries
  • Goal tracking (TODO finish)
  • Keyphrase analytics
• Performance
  
  • Page level caching. Can be enabled for each blog indivually (Advanced blog settings
• Admin interface
  
  • Yabbarriffic drag & drop widget reordering (you can even move a widget from one container to another)
  • File manager now supports a shared directory (/media/shared/global/)
  • Enhanced dashboard.
  • Added usability shortcuts.
  • Improved iPhone compatibility.
• Post editing
  
  • Added "Save & edit" button
  • Added 1 click "Publish NOW !" button
  • Enhanced handling of attached images & files.
  • Posts can be explicitely ordered by the use of the order field. This can be set on each post in expert edit mode (in the right column).
  • Post can now have custom fields. Custom fields can be defined for each blog under "Blog Settings > Features".
  • The issue date can now be set to an explicit date or just to "now" in which case it will be updated without the need to explicitely type in the current date/time.
  • Urltitles (slugs) can now be up to 200 chars long.
  • You can now specify a different title to be displayed in the <title> tag than the regular title of your post
• Logging and stats
  
  • Session and Hit logging as well as debug info display are now done systematically at PHP shutdown. Therefore calls to $Hit->log() and debug_info() are no longer needed within skins. (It doesn't hurt to let them there either.)
  • Keyphrase logging
• More SEO settings:
  
  • Customizable 404 pages
  • Customizable 404 responses (200, 301, 302, 303, 404 and 410 !)
  • Description and keywords META tags are inserted into the main page only to avoid duplicate content
• Enhanced blog by email (tilman)
• Reworked demo blog created at install
• Blog properties
  
  • Longer blog name (up to 255 chars)
  • Autogeneration of category/chapter slugs(url names)
• Comments
  
  • Whoever has permission to *edit* comments will now have extended permissions on *new* comments too, including posting <a> tags.
• Bug fixes